LA ISLA BONITA

Isla Mujeres was extremely beautiful, and HOT. The first day we arrived was one of the best days of my life. We took a ferry to the island and sat on the top of the boat, I could already feel myself getting tan and my hair becoming lighter blonde. We got to the island and it was a bit overcast, perfect weather when it's humid, in my opinion. I could smell the flowers in the trees and we carried our bags to our air conditioned hotel. The room was clean and crisp and smelled of laundry, our large windows looked out onto the Caribbean ocean and there were orange cats on the roof across from ours. We rented a very unstable golf cart and drove around the perimeter of the island , along with semi-trucks and mopeds (in the same lane). I stopped and picked plumerias from the ground and it started to rain. I ran barefoot dropping pink flowers in the street, dodging warm raindrops that evaporated on the hot pavement.

We stopped at a beach resort that looked like it was modeled after The Blue Lagoon. The sand was white and it stuck to my legs. We drank cold ice cocktails and I got a massage under a white tent. The woman held up seashells to both of my ears to hear the ocean. I was so happy I tried to remember the last time I felt that way. The water was light and clear turquoize, if there can be a color like that. There was a dock that led to nowhere except the straight horizon of the water. We drove to a small restaurant where we ordered an entire fish and drank ice cold beer. The plastic chairs sank deep into the sand. Robb tried to speak Spanish. A man dove to find shells and they came out clean in the water, glossy pink and coral colors. I bought one for $3.00 and carried it back in my lap.

When the sun goes down on the island it doesn't get dark, the light stays on the buildings longer than it should. We found a tiny restaurant later that night that was tucked away under crumbling yellow walls and opened up into a jungle of trees. The food was all perfect, fish and chicken fajitas and rice, spagetti (on every menu!) and frozen tourist margaritas (which I came to crave every day somehow). A man started playing the guitar and he sounded exactly like Sting, so much that we figured it must be Sting in a disguise. I tipped him too much and we ordered ice cream and ate it , slightly drunk, and sank our feet into the sand.

We snorkeled and saw hundreds of neon fish darting all around us like a cartoon. I took pictures with an underwater camera and got water up my nose. We drank beer all day and went from beach to beach in our golf cart. There were iguanas and cats everywhere. The trees were all so deep green and lush I wanted to pretend I was an animal. At night we walked the main street and tried different restaurants, making friends. We slept in every day and walked to a Brazillian cafe and drank fruit and milk shakes for breakfast. We watched Mexico beat France in the world cup and I tried to teach an old man how to say "beautiful" in English. We swam in hotel pools that were not ours and I read under palm trees one day on a perfectly deserted beach.

It was like paradise...and I didn't even get a sunburn. One day while we were swimming a fish bit off my boyfriend's mole on his back thinking it was food. I didn't stop laughing for two days. After a week our bathroom wall was accidentally knocked down by a confused construction worker. The loudest noise on earth came from the other room and I ran to see a small startled Mexican man holding a sledgehammer staring at me through a hole in the wall. Needless to say we switched hotels. Our second hotel was amazing, all wooden huts and cold tiled floors. We spent a lot of time on large white beds they had out at the beach. Our last night we had dinner right next to the water. We drank champagne and I thought I was in a movie. The warm water was grazing our feet at the table and there were a hundred candles in the sand. We then preceded to have twelve margaritas and became euphorically happy and swam in the black ocean surrounded by tiki torches on the shore. It was perfect.

Where we stayed:
http://www.nabalam.com/
http://www.casaelpio.com/

Isla Mujeres official site:
http://www.islamujeres.info/